Video: See Laser-Firing Machines ‘Mate’ in Jaqapparatus1

Alien heads, music video amputees and laser-blasting robots find their way into a new short film by Chris Cunningham that showcases his evolution from maker of strange music videos to audiovisual artist. Best known for directing disturbing music videos for Aphex Twin and Björk in the ’90s, Cunningham started work in 2003 on his own music for ferociously weird new art installation Jaqapparatus1.

Snippets toward the end of Cunningham‘s self-directed short, embedded above, show how he uses motion-control camera rigs to move around the dimly lit, laser-firing robots. “It’s a kind of duel,” Cunningham said in a statement about the art piece, describing the on-screen mayhem as “a surreal mating display which sees each machine trying to dominate the other.” (Cunningham’s video debuted Tuesday on Nowness.)

The artist began establishing his sci-fi bona fides at age 17 with an apprenticeship as a model builder and animatronics whiz. He then parlayed his gift for crafting elegantly creepy visuals to make some of the ’90s most artfully twisted music videos. But where peers like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry used MTV as a springboard for movies, the British polymath moved from making promo clips for other people to creating his own music.

He’s kept a low profile for much of the past decade while performing audiovisual gigs at festivals in Japan and Europe. He unveiled Jaqapparatus1 last month at high-tech car store Audi City London.